the Modernization of Emacs
in [Lisp]
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From: Galen Boyer on 24 Apr 2006 22:46 On 12 Apr 2006, lord(a)emf.net wrote: > > Take just about anyone who has used a couple of > Windows-style apps (that includes things like Open Office or > Gnome foo), plunk them down in front of a new app in that > style, tell them in a couple sentences what they can use the > app for, and most times they'll figure out 80% of what they > need from there, just by playing around. Maybe a small > number of questions they need to ask the user sitting next > to them. Sure, one can immediately be productive with Windows apps. But, a year later, that same person is only slightly better with their tool than they were when they started. In a years time, a new Emacs user is far more efficient with Emacs than they were when they started with Emacs, and they have just scratched the surface of what this wonderful journey brings to them. It will never be easy to learn, because there is just way too much one can learn. -- Galen Boyer
From: Hadron Quark on 25 Apr 2006 04:13 "Galen"posted on 2006-04-25: > On 12 Apr 2006, lord(a)emf.net wrote: >> >> Take just about anyone who has used a couple of >> Windows-style apps (that includes things like Open Office or >> Gnome foo), plunk them down in front of a new app in that >> style, tell them in a couple sentences what they can use the >> app for, and most times they'll figure out 80% of what they >> need from there, just by playing around. Maybe a small >> number of questions they need to ask the user sitting next >> to them. > > Sure, one can immediately be productive with Windows apps. But, a year > later, that same person is only slightly better with their tool than > they were when they started. In a years time, a new Emacs user is >far Because they learnt everything they *needed* to do quickly :) > more efficient with Emacs than they were when they started with Emacs, > and they have just scratched the surface of what this wonderful journey > brings to them. It will never be easy to learn, because there is just > way too much one can learn. > Which is why a lot of people dont use it : they have no wish to use emacs as an OS and application library! Yes emacs rocks when its configured right : yes its brilliant when you can configure it and do some lisp. Not its not brilliant that it took me a day to get cedet and ecb working properly for multiple logins or that it took me 3 days to get a dictionary/thesaurus working properly in conjunction with a translation tool. emacs is great : but lets never think its easy :) Like everything its easy when you know how : and that "when you know how" is, in my experience, the stumbling block to many people embracing emacs with the love and attention that it deserves. Now I have emacs configured and working well it terrifies me that I might not have backed everything up properly and might need to go through the whole setup process again in the event of a system failure...
From: vjp2.at on 25 Apr 2006 05:55 The thing about emacs is you can work at speed-of-thought. Too many Windows apps are dumbed down. User friendly is for stupid users. - = - Vasos-Peter John Panagiotopoulos II, Reagan Mozart Pindus BioStrategist http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/vjp2/vasos.htm ---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Ignore http://lynx.browser.org/ noncompliant web sites] [Regulation begets corruption] [Urb Sprawl confounds terror] [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards]
From: Greg Menke on 25 Apr 2006 06:20 Hadron Quark <hadronquark(a)gmail.com> writes: > "Galen"posted on 2006-04-25: > > > On 12 Apr 2006, lord(a)emf.net wrote: > > emacs is great : but lets never think its easy :) Like everything its > easy when you know how : and that "when you know how" is, in my > experience, the stumbling block to many people embracing emacs with > the love and attention that it deserves. So emacs's disadvantage is that complex tools are hard to learn? Where did you find that they are ever simple? > Now I have emacs configured and working well it terrifies me that I might > not have backed everything up properly and might need to go through the > whole setup process again in the event of a system failure... Just copy your .emacs file to a usb thumb drive and you're done, even on a Windows machine. Try and save your Windows app configuration in some useful & simple way other than dumping the entire registry to a text file, along will whichever .ini files the app might use. So emacs is bad in some way on this issue? Gregm
From: Ari Johnson on 25 Apr 2006 07:12
vjp2.at(a)at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com writes: > The thing about emacs is you can work at speed-of-thought. > > Too many Windows apps are dumbed down. > > User friendly is for stupid users. User-friendly is also good for: - Casual users - Occasional users - Non-programmers - Users with less computer experience - Users with better things to do than learn Emacs I know many people for whom user-friendly is mandatory. Very few of them are stupid. |